Personal Laser Printers Roundup: Monochrome Printing. Page 2

We are going to introduce to you 9 laser printers for home and office use from such well-known companies as Brother, Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Konica-Minolta, Lexmark, OKI, Samsung and Xerox. We will look at sub-$200 models, to find out which one is going to be the best buy for your buck. All the details including in-depth performance and quality analysis in our extensive roundup!

Brother HL-2040

Design and Ergonomics

This is an excellent example of a compact personal printer. The components are arranged horizontally and the input tray is wholly hidden in the case so you can place the device on a very small surface like a ledge of your PC desk. The printed sheets emerge at the top and do not require any extra space, either. So the only protruding part is the small folding tab that supports the prints. The wavy lines of the case and the neutral color scheme are going to fit equally well into the interior of a home study or an office.

The input tray opens up forward – you can take it out of the printer altogether. There are symmetrical width limiters here. Paper is to be placed on the tray face down.

You can also insert the paper sheet by sheet into the manual feed slot that is equipped with adjustable guides. You may want to use it to print the address on an envelope or fill in a form, for example.

The cover at the back panel gives you access to the transport mechanism. If the paper gets stuck, it won’t be difficult to take it out. Interface and power connectors are at the back, too.

The USB port is blocked by a sticker which text warns you against connecting the printer to the PC before installing the driver. Experienced users probably know how difficult it is to clean up the Windows Registry manually after the OS has wrongly identified an attached USB device (and this is often the case when a printer is connected to the PC prior to driver installation). So this sticker and this warning are going to save some trouble for novice users who are always eager to connect and try the newly bought device as soon as possible.